REWRITE: Night Is Long
by PipeLad
Summary: REWRITE/REVISION Harry is fed up, and on the run from the Ministry and Dumbledore. Finding his way to an elite new school he is faced with new magics, new species, and confronted with the problem of who he is at his center. No real pairings as of yet, unlikely to be any. Rated M. New School. Vampire Harry. No slash. Heavy influence by Miranda Flairgold.
1. Chapter 1

This is my very first story, well really the Prologue and first chapter to my very first story. I own very little of this, credit goes to J.K. Rowling. Also credit to Miranda Flairgold and her amazing stories, they influence this story hugely, as you will be able to tell. Please review with any thoughts you have, positive or negative I really appreciate the feedback. Fair warning my grammar can be spotty at best and downright atrocious at worst. Stick with this story, it'll be a wild ride.

From the inky darkness lightning flashed dangerously, it was without a doubt the worst storm the small town had seen in years. The townsfolk, magical and muggle alike were shutting their shutters and doors, and raising what wards they could, none of them had ever seen such a violent, black storm pop up so quickly. Halloween in Godric's Hollow was suddenly split from a peaceful holiday to a violent downpour. Torrential rainfall, and black skies were without a doubt a bad omen, according to some of the more superstitious residents of the small town.

But one Felix Drakul, an ancient vampire, and only surviving member of the Drakul bloodline, knew better. He was an accomplished Necromancer, among many other talents, he had almost by himself modernized and improved the art of Necromancy, and he knew death magic when he felt it. He had been in England for about ten months, seducing the local women, and sampling the blood of England, but more importantly, he was working on some very important projects. He had come close to taking one on as a slave, but had decided against it on the basis that Felix would rather not start another vampire/wizard war, especially so soon after the last one. Vampires still kept slaves, just usually they had good reason to, or the person would not be missed. That was not so in this case.

Felix had been also working on some of his own private projects. Felix was undertaking massive thread magic project, which was magic that was cast and used by weaving and tying various threads into various knots and patterns, that would be a world wide project, and a great asset to Felix when he finished. On the side he had been tracking down some stray death magic he had been sensing, but with little to show for his admittedly half assed efforts. That is he had little luck up until precisely thirty four seconds ago. Thirty four seconds ago he had felt the single largest spike of wild death magic since the whole fiasco with the Elves in 500 A.D.

He had immediately secured his project and his tent, with a few simple and quick flicks of his wand, where he was staying as he camped all throughout England, and stood outside his tent for a second. He focused more on the death magic he was feeling, and within a moment or two had a more precise fix on the location.

Apparating into the middle of a massive and sudden storm Felix cast a few charms to repel the water and keep himself dry. He hated wearing wet robes, almost as much as he hated vampire-hunters. He sensed the death magic pouring out of a small cottage up on a hill, and could even see the death magic doing its work and taking its toll on everything around it. A black cloud, that looked very similar to a funnel cloud of a tornado, was fueling the violent storm that was pouring rain down on the village.

Flicking his wand this way and that as he progressed through the village Felix was casting basic concealing wards that would prevent the sheer amount of death magic from being registered on scanners that Felix was sure the Ministry would have set up.

Felix easily waded his way through the cloud of death magic that was visibly decaying the trees and plants as he made his way up to the hill. Any muggle would have immediately perished and had their life force stripped away to fuel the storm had they been dumb or brave enough to approach the cottage on top of the hill.

Making his way through a gate, and past a small graveyard near the cottage Felix began to siphon all of the death magic into a special death magic containment cube, for later examination. He tracked the cloud to it's very center, and went into the partially blown up, slightly decaying house, which was taking the brunt of the damage from the death magic.

He went up the stairs very carefully, his ornate wand always casting spells and charms to try and decipher the meaning of it all. He stopped dead in his tracks upon reaching the baby blue door labelled "Harry's Room." Entering the room he saw a beautiful redheaded woman on the floor, obviously dead, yet somehow she looked vaguely familiar. Perhaps she had been one of the women he had seduced and fed off of during his ten month stay in England, yes, that was it, he Felix remembered now. He remembered quite enjoying her. Her passion and emotion could be tasted in her blood, and it was quite delicious for a vampire to drink.

He felt an incredibly strong magical core, very strong ties to death magic that were just beginning to form, and even ties to bloodmagic all coming from the toddler in the crib, whose life was slipping away, fueling the storm with the toddlers very life force that was being turned into death magic. As the little infants magic slipped away going right by him Felix couldn't help but notice huge magical potential in the baby, Harry, he presumed.

Tucking away that tidbit of knowledge Felix knew he had to save this baby, he had simply too much potential to be allowed go to waste. He severed the magical link from the baby to the storm, that was draining away young Harrys life, but soon saw it was not enough. Too much of Harry's life force had slipped away.

Felix had only one real option, to turn the little baby into a vampire, which should be simple despite the slight vampiric magic already radiating off of the child, mostly hidden by the rolling waves of residual death magic. Felix was able to see the small strands of vampiric magic by activating his own bloodmagic runes carved into his eyeballs and eyelids, enabling him to see the ebbing flow of the death magic, and the small, constant trickle of vampiric magic.

Using the fangs present in all vampires Felix sliced a deep cut into his finger, having to consciously disable his natural healing abilites, and deactivating his extensive healing bloodmagic work. He let the wee baby Harry suckle on his finger, ingesting the blood of the ancient. Searching out his magic in his blood that was in Harry he sent a magical signal to attack the regular, healthy blood cells, and turn them into vampiric cells.

As little Harry drank more of the ancient vampires blood the battle in his veins became fiercer and fiercer. His already shaky hold on life was flagging and waning back and forth as the vampiric blood cells turned his regular blood cells over.

This was a rather dangerous thing to do to an infant, but very commonplace in vampire culture. The baby had to be magically very strong, either that or ridiculously lucky. Among the older vampire clans it was not uncommon for the babies with the most potential to be given a single sip of Felix Felicis before the attempt at turning the baby.

Harry had no such luck, but despite massive magical exhaustion in his tiny body and slight magical trauma, he still had large enough reserves to counter the vampirism ever so slightly, allowing his little infant body the precious seconds it needed to adjust to the sudden change.

The sudden change on such a basic, microscopic level was what usually killed the babies during their transformation.

This whole process took just a little over five minutes for Felix, from first sensing the death magic to turning little Harry. Felix had set up some rudimentary wards upon his arrival, but the massive amount of death magic had reached the sensitive death magic detectors in the office of one Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore, head of the wizengamot, headmaster of Hogwarts, among other titles, was nearing his one hundredth and eleventh birthday. He had set up his own delicate, and very secret wards over the Potter residence at Godric's Hollow, but these wards were merely detection wards and alert wards, with no defensive or offensive capabilities at all.

Magically feeling all of the Potter wards snap Dumbledore heaved a great sigh, it had begun, the end of the war, for now, and the beginning of a long, tough, life for Harry James Potter. Dumbledore had no way of knowing that he received the signal a solid five minutes after he should have, but he gathered all of his magic to him, just in case he would have to duel or fight, and apparated to Godrics's Hollow.

In the split second time it takes for apparation to occur Felix had been able to sense the massive magical core incoming, and made the split second decision to return to his esoteric projects, and he would be able to return later and retrieve the child.

He could have brought the child along with him, his new Whelp, as new vampires were called by their Makers, but he was fairly sure that any sudden magical travel such as apparition would shock the boy enough to kill him. This was not acceptable, especially when he could just return later to retrieve the Whelp.

Dumbledore arrived as Felix left, Elder Wand at the ready, on full alert. The old wizard had apparated directly into the upstairs room, Harry's nursery room.

Scanning the room he saw the still body of Lily Potter in front of the crib. Closing his weary eyes he had a private moment of silence for Lily, and as he was sure James was dead downstairs, for James too. Walking over to the crib he examined the green eyed, black haired heir to House Potter. Twirling his wand in an intricate pattern, a complex diagnostic charm that would automatically relay any diseases or threats present in Harry straight into his mind, and would project an image of Harrys body and any injuries Dumbledore received the shock of his life.

He couldn't believe it! Harry Potter, Savior of the Wizarding World, Champion of the Light, was a vampire! A damn vampire! Recasting the charm several times, along with half a dozen other charms he had no choice but to accept the reality of it all.

He knew what had to be done, and that it had to be done very quickly. He grabbed little Harry, and apparated straight into his office.

The next part he would never forgive himself for, but he knew that he had to do it, for the Greater Good of the Wizarding World. He apparated to the dungeons of Hogwarts and grabbed a young Death Eater, who had been captured by the Order not too long ago.

Taking the small baby, and the unconscious man into the hidden ritual room attached to his office Dubldedore quickly and efficiently drew the runes in chalk, ash, and blood that were necessary for this old, very nearly forgotten ritual.

Chanting in long forgotten languages, and twirling his wand Dumbledore produced a razor sharp ritual knife, and slid it across the young Death Eater's throat, spilling out his lifeblood all over the room, and everyone in it. Finishing his chant, and beginning to weave dozens of other enchantments, charms, and spells into the ritual that would make it ridiculously powerful and durable Dumbledore cast the final spell, pushing all of the magic he possibly could into it, even accessing magic he had stored in his office, and sealed the Ritual of Binding.

Rituals of Binding were very common, and were widely used. Very few were as complex as the one Dumbledore was undertaking currently, in fact most were quite simple.

The Ritual had to be very powerful in order to bind the knowledge in Dumbledore's soul, and to subtly remove it from the vampire that turned him. And thus Harry Potter was a vampire, but his vampirism was bound and sealed into the very depths of his soul. Unknown to everyone involved the vampirism now in Harry's soul discovered the portion of Voldemort's soul, and locked it away, feeding off of it, and letting it replenish ever so slightly to feed on it again.

Unbeknownst even to himself Felix had the last five or so minutes of his multiple millennium life blurred and mixed over. He would find himself unable to focus on the last few minutes, despite everything that had happened. Felix would simply feel no reason to want to investigate further into the past few minutes, the spell would take care of the rest, the fabrication of the memories and what not.

Dumbledore then downed multiple Replenishing Potions and some Pepper-Ups to reinvigorate himself enough to take Harry to his relatives. Dropping Harry off on the doorstep in a basket, wrapped up in a blanket he considered how his plan had fallen apart.

Harry Potter was now, to the world, a regular wizard, but he was actually a vampire. Dumbledore had planned to have Hagrid come along and take Harry to Privet Drive, but he could not and did not.

Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts, and contemplated his next move, and pondering just how the hell had Harry become a vampire.

Felix Drakul, on the other hand had almost totally forgotten about Harry, due to the subtle Fidelius Charm worked into Harry's bloodmagic by Dumbledore. Felix went back to his thread magic project, and two months later Felix had moved onto another stage of the project, this time in south eastern Asia.

And thus Harry was left, his vampirism securely locked away, with his relatives for a long and miserable eleven years.

Thats the end of the Prologue, hope you liked it. Here's the first chapter.

This story picks up as many others do, especially tales and accounts covering this young mans life.

It was a hot summer day, about noon, and our hero was working in the garden. This was a regular activity for him, he had been doing it everyday for as long as he could remember until _That_ day. The day young Hadrian, usually called "Harry" or "Boy!" Potter received his Hogwarts Letter.

He took to magic, and magic took to him. He studied many different subjects, yet still never coming close to even scraping the surface of magical knowledge. He would study nearly everyday, usually at night time in the library. He had to hide his studies because of his abusiverelatives, who would beat him for doing better than his non-magical cousin, Dudley.

Young Harry went on many adventures during his years at school.

His first year he saved the famous Sorcerers Stone from the clutches of Voldemort, the evil wizard who murdered Harrys parents.

His second year he rescued Ginevra Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets, slaying a thousand year old Basilisk in the process. By doing that he once again escaped and thwarted the plans of Voldemort.

His third year was plagued with trouble and fear. The infamous Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban. He was reportedly going after Harry, in order to finish the job he started when he sold Harrys parents to Voldemort. This came to a head when Harry and his close friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and his professor Remus Lupin confronted Black. They discovered his innocence, except Black was not believed and had to go back on the run after another daring escape.

This leads us to the fourth year of the not so young Harry Potter. He was selected as the Fourth Champion in the TriWizard Tournament. His selection as champion, despite being too young, laid the first cracks in the foundation of his friendship with Ron Weasley. Never the less, Harry competed admirably and bravely through all the tasks, facing dragons, mermen, and a potentially lethal maze.

The final challenge of the Tournament saw Harry kidnapped along with Cedric Diggory. Cedric was brutally cut down in front of Harry, while Harry was used in a ritual to bring back Lord Voldemort, who was supposedly quite dead. Yet the Wizarding World is as a flock of sheep, and they listened not to the truth, but to what they wanted to hear. Harry and Dumbledore were not believed when they spoke out. Dumbledore even lost many prestigious positions in the Wizarding World that he had held for decades.

Harry then spent the summer at his relatives house, much like he is now, and then returned to Hogwarts for his fifth year of schooling. He was a true leader among the students, organizing Defense Against the Dark Arts classes because of the incompetence of the teacher.

Harry had visions of Lord Voldemort through the whole year, until during an exam they came to a head. He saw his godfather Sirius being tortured by Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic. He gathered his closest and bravest friends and set forth on yet another daring rescue mission.

During the battle a shelf full of Time Turners was knocked over. This is the exact moment in Harry Potters' life where everything started to go wrong.

Ginevra Weasley, or Ginny, was caught underneath the falling shelves, along with one Gregory Goyle Sr. They were both trapped under the shelves and as the Sands of Time sprinkled down on them they aged at an exponential rate. The bystanders saw them whither away and die. It was devastating to Harry. He watched his best friend's little and only sister die before his very eyes, and it was completely his fault that she was even there to begin with.

This, along with the death of Sirius, the only true family Harry had left left Harry as a guilt ridden, emotional wreck.

This also brings us up to the present time. Harry was taking a quick break from the harsh work and was wiping his brow when he saw two black spots approaching in the sky. He watched the two post owls fly over and took each letter. One had the neat and tidy script of Albus Dumbledore and the other bore the Ministry of Magic seal upon it.  
Deciding to stop his gardening (Consequences be damned!) he went up to his room to read the letters. Ducking around corners and dodging the eyes of his relatives Harry made his way up to his room, and settled in at his desk. As he read the letter from the ministry he could not believe his eyes.

He muttered as he read…  
"_Dear ... Informing you of your trial that has taken place last Monday._"  
"What bloody trial!?"  
"_You have been convicted of one count of Murder of a Pureblood Witch, one count of Murder of a Pureblood Lord, and Use of an Unforgiveable. You are hereby expelled from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A squad of Aurors have been deployed to apprehend you. You have ten minutes to say goodbye to your family and organize a will or last wishes. Leaving the property will automatically increase the sentence from Life in Azkaban to Dementors Kiss immediately upon capture._"

Harry, mind kicking into over drive, immediately ripped open Dumbledores letter and speed read it. Dumbledore just said that, "_Hogwarts is always open for those in need, and to remember your third year summer, my boy._"

Harry was perplexed. His third year summer? He had inflated his Aunt Marge, and ran away from home, taking the Knight Bus...The Knight Bus!

He had to take the Knight Bus, but Hogwarts is always open... Dumbledore wanted him to take the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade! Harry looked at the clock, he only had seven minutes to leave the only house he had ever really known and his only family behind, and that suited him just fine.

He grabbed his wand, put a shirt on, and grabbed his trunk, that he always kept packed just in case he had to run away again. His trunk had everything he would need, his Invisibility Cloak, his clothes, books, potions supplies, and his Firebolt from Sirius. He opened up his owls' cage and told her to fly on to The Burrow, where the Weasley clan could take care of her.

He yelled at his only family members still alive, telling them he was leaving, never to return and only then realized he was home alone. Even better for him, he thought as he walked to the side walk and stuck out his wand. The triple decker Knight Bus appeared after a second with Stan Shunpike opening the door.

Two Galleons, and twenty minutes later and Harry was standing nearby the Hogsmeade train station, peering down the long path to take him on to Hogwarts. It was just starting to get dark as he set forth. By the time he reached the front gate it was nearly pitch black outside.

He tried and tried but the gate would not move, and no one could hear him. The stress of the whole situation was beginning to eat away at him as he realized that if he was caught he would be given the Dementor's Kiss immediately.

He started to realize how Dumbledore knew he would be here and possibly just wanted to capture Harry, make it seem like he had run away (which he had) and have Harry given the Kiss. Harry was beginning to panic, his heart was racing and his head was painfully pounding from the stress, and he knew it was only a matter of time before either Dumbledore or the Ministry found him.

Harry knew that it would be a thousand times harder to track his magical signature in the Forbidden Forest, even if he cast any spells.

And so, our brave hero, Harry Potter sets forth into the dark and dangerous forest and unknowingly seals his destiny. He takes the first steps on a path to power, a path to greatness. After all Voldemort did great things, too. Terrible, but great.


	2. Chapter 2

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Harry had panicked and decided that he would be fleeing into the Forbidden Forest, just in case Dumbledore was trying to deceive him into being Kissed by a Dementor. Besides, if Dumbledore was not trying to trick him he would probably be able to find him rather easily in the Forest.

And with that very thought the 16 year old Wizard lit his Holly and Phoenix wand with a muttered "_Lumos_" and set off in search of some shelter.

He only had to walk for about twenty minutes before he found a small cave. He knew that is was dangerous to explore caves, especially at night, especially in the Forbidden Forest. But he barely registered those thoughts and went on inside the cave. He thoroughly checked it out, found no creatures and some good sticks for a small fire to keep him warm through the night.

He pulled out his previously shrunken chest and enlarged it to the correct size, pulled out his invisibility cloak, some robes and re-shrunk the chest. He had decided that he could afford to cast magic, despite being underage, even though he was on the run. He had shrunken his chest at the gates of Hogwarts, he didn't want to drag it through the Forest and leave an obvious trail.

He put the chest back in his pocket, used the robes as a makeshift pillow and tossed the invisibility cloak over himself as a thin blanket and some concealment. He cast a warming charm over himself, and decided against lighting a fire that night. Harry slowly drifted to sleep with thoughts of confusion and betrayal running rampant in his mind.

Harry was woken up to a slight hissing sound and rays of sunlight hitting his face. He looked up and saw a quite venomous Magical Viper, with a sleek midnight black body and golden markings along its side, in front of him. It was not even nearly fully grown, only about two feet long at this point.

Hissing out to it, Harry did his best to placate it, "Eassssy, issss thisss your home?"

"Yessss, Sssspeaker. It issss where I live."

"All by yourssssself?"

"Yessss, I am lonely. My name is Cygnusss, Sssspeaker."

"I am Harry, it issss nice to meet you Cygnussss."

Hissing a short conversation back and forth they had decided that it would be beneficial to both if Cygnus was bonded to Harry as his familiar. With a quick chant read from one of Harry's books and a flash of light the bonding was finished. Cygnus and Harry now had the slightest of mental connections.

Which reminded Harry that he would need to teach himself Occlumency at some point, preferably much sooner rather than later.

Harry knew that he would have to live in the Forest, at least for a little while. He couldn't afford to show his face and be captured. He doubted he could escape a squad of Aurors or Hit Wizards.

And so Harry went off into the forest, always staying in his cave at night and gathering food and exploring during the day. Cygnus was an invaluable guide the whole time, teaching Harry the basic ways of survival and life inside the Forbidden Forest.

Cygnus's own family had been killed by a group of Forest Elves, who had been foraging for food near the cave, a few months prior to Harry's arrival. This saddened Harry to hear, but he was still very glad that he had his familiar with him.

Cygnus was the only thing keeping Harry even remotely sane. Harry would cry himself to sleep nearly every night, wallowing in guilt over the deaths of Ginny and Sirius, and even Cedric from the Tournament. Cygnus would often find Harry simply staring into the fire in the cave at night, eyes red and puffy from crying, and his throat hoarse and ragged from begging for forgiveness that he would never receive.

The first full moon saw Harry and Cygnus hiding in the cave, which by now had a small fire pit, small potions corner, and cot set up, with a large boulder that could be levitated to seal the entrance.

The entire night of the full moon Harry and Cygnus could hear wild and rampant werewolves howling and crashing through the Forest, fighting and snarling at each other. Harry fell asleep after a while, and even though he didn't realize it, Cygnus did. This was the first night that he had not cried over his new situation, loss of friends, and this was a good improvement, Cygnus noted.

"Ssss, wake up, Masssster." Cygnus was waking Harry up for the day, they had much to do. Their food supplies were running rather low and today would be a good day to check the snares, traps, and gather berries and whatnot.

"I'm up, Cygnussss. I asssssume that it issss morning?"

"Yessss, Masssster. We need to check the ssssnaressss."

Harry had set up small snares to catch rabbits and other small game, he had learned it from a Wilderness Survival Handbook that he had nicked from Dudley's room. The fat oaf would never miss it, Harry was not quite sure his cousin could even read. But that was beside the point, Harry did have things to do that day.

Setting off on the quarter mile trek to the first of the snares Harry practiced wand motions to various spells, and worked on casting them silently into the ground or on rocks.

"_Eviscero!"_ That curse did exactly as it sounded like, it eviscerated its target. This was a borderline 'dark' spell, or it would be labelled as such by the Ministry and Dumbledore, but they had both sold Harry down the river. What did he care about following their rules, his very existence was going against what they wanted.

Hearing a rustling in the tree limbs above and slightly behind him Harry turned on his heel and raised his wand.

The dark form of a Forest Elf quickly disappeared into the leaves, and Harry could hear the limbs and leaves rustling as the elf jumped away. Harry and Cygnus had been together in their cave for about two weeks now, and they would occasionally notice or Cygnus would smell an elf or two lurking around, merely observing. They would always retreat away after they had been noticed.

Continuing on with his trek to the snares Harry was a little more cautious and wary. After all just a few short weeks ago Dumbledore had tried to sell him out to the Ministry, Harry believed, and Hogwarts, where Dumbledore was, was only a few miles away from where Harry currently lived in hiding.

This was disconcerting to Harry, but he would be able to deal with it. He would have to deal with it. He had a plan, and that plan was to find an entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. The Basilisk had been down there for a thousand years after all, it had to have gone hunting sometimes. So it made sense that an entrance or tunnel existed inside the Forest.

But so far neither Harry himself nor Cygnus had had any luck with finding the entrance, but that was okay with Harry.

Checking the snares and finding two small rabbits total Harry continued on with his day as usual, and cleaned and prepared the rabbits for dinner. He had looked through the Forest for an hour or so earlier, and still had no luck finding the entrance to the chamber.

Falling asleep for the night in the dim cave lit only by the dying embers of the fire Harry reflected on his past two weeks of living in the Forbidden Forest.

Harry was up before Cygnus this time, he had felt a tremor in the basic wards that he had cast. It was definitely something large enough to register on his wards, so probably a human or humanoid type creature, that was now approaching his cave.

Harry was still using the Invisibility Cloak as a thin blanket during his nights in the cave, and had been for the month he had been inside the Forest.

He didn't like that someone or something humanoid or human was creeping up on his cave in the middle of the night, he still had enemies. Voldemort, Dumbledore, and the Ministry would all want him dead, Kissed, or captured.

"Ah, Fuck!" Harry was trying to quickly and quietly grab Cygnus, and shrink his trunk. He tapped his wand to his trunk, shrinking it, and slipped it into his pocket. Cygnus woke up suddenly and angrily, hissing out death threats and very nearly striking at Harry with his fangs.

Cygnus was silenced with a single glance into Harry's eyes, to see the slight panic but also burning intensity just below the surface of the Killing Curse green eyes. Cygnus could tell that something was wrong, even if he couldn't sense it himself.

Harry Vanished the ash and embers of the fire and cast a spell that caused a slight breeze to disrupt any footprints in the dust on the cave floor, and began retreating to the back of the cave, Cygnus in his hands and Invisibility Cloak thrown over both of them.

Cygnus had been telling Harry about a small tunnel that led outside of the cave in the back, and that was where Harry was heading. He could now sense that the approaching presence the wards had registered was definitely Dumbledore, or someone equally powerful. This was not good news, but Harry believed that he was going to get out in time.

Harry could just hear the boulder being levitated from its place as he squeezed his way through the narrow tunnel. Squeezing, pressing, and crawling his way through for a few minutes Harry was left standing under the night sky in a small clearing, near a formation of rocks, the middle of which he had just crawled out of.

Taking a second to un-shrink and re-shrink his trunk and retrieve his Firebolt Harry could sense Dumbledore poking around the cave.

While Harry's magical presence should have been all over the cave it was not, mainly because it was diluted with Cygnus's, and that the Invisibility Cloak prevented his presence and signature from leaking out while he slept. It was truly a powerful tool of concealment, and had proven itself invaluable many times during Harry's adventures.

Flying off into the night at high speeds on his Firebolt Harry was careful to avoid and dodge any trees or limbs that could dismount him in a particularly violent and painful fashion. He had seen enough Quidditch injuries and incidents to know that falling off or getting knocked from his broom at high speeds was something he wanted to avoid.

Flying a few miles deeper into the Forest, actually towards the Acromantula colony, Harry got no sleep that night. He and Cygnus stayed on a sort of watch duty, and they patrolled the area near them.

For the next few nights Harry did not go back to the cave, he just bounced from location to location. He had been in the Forest about a month when he finally went back to his cave. He scanned it thoroughly for any magic that Dumbledore might have left behind, and also for any traps. Satisfied that none were present and that it was an acceptable decision to return to the cave Harry did exactly that.

It was now two months into his stay in the Forbidden Forest, not that Harry knew that. Harry was no longer keeping track of time, he was simply living from day to day. He had basic potion ingredients for healing and basic nutrient potions stored up, a few of each of those potions stored up, enough food to last him about a week or so in advance, and he still had Cygnus with him.

This was good for Harry, and so was what he was doing right now. He was currently flying his Firebolt at top speeds dodging and ducking the high tree trunks in the Forbidden Forest, reminiscing about Quidditch and how his life used to be. This was the first time he had truly been happy in the Forest, and not subconsciously guilt-ridden over what had happened to Ginny and Sirius.

This was a very good sign for Harry, that he was going through the grieving process and learning to deal with everything.

Three months into his stay and Harry was truly looking and probably smelling quite fierce. He had been able to regularly wash himself in conjured water showers and the occasional creek or stream bath, but he had neglected any hair cuts or shaving.

That combined with his now leaner form had turned Harry Potter from the frail boy he had once been into the rugged young man that now lived inside a cave with his magical viper as his sole pet and companion.

The Forest Elves were still following Harry and Cygnus, occasionally now getting closer and closer. It seemed that they had worked out that Harry and Cygnus were not there to harm them, they were simply living their own lives.

Neither Harry nor Cygnus had had any luck with locating the Chamber of Secrets entrance that they were both confident existed.

Harry was not too preoccupied with that, however, right now he was only preoccupied with continuing to avoid Dumbledore and the Ministry, and also Voldemort.

He had been thinking more about Voldemort. If Dumbledore and the Ministry, and probably the vast majority of the populace of Wizarding Britain had sold him out then he no longer had any obligation to fight Voldemort.

But Harry could not let his parent's murderer go without paying for his crimes, and despite Harry's potential indifference Voldemort would almost certainly continue to put faith in the prophecy, which would just end up with the two fighting.

So Harry figured it was a safe assumption to count Voldemort on his list of enemies for now. Dumbledore was also on this list because Harry had been thinking more and more about the old headmaster, and the more he thought and considered it the more it seemed probably and likely that Dumbledore had been trying to get Harry to be Kissed.

That was another thing, as long as Harry remained in Britain he could be caught by the Ministry, and administered the Dementor's Kiss on sight. He had considered trying to flee the Isles all together, but had dismissed it. He was already settled into his temporary life in the Forest, and would be safer in the Chamber of Secrets.

It was six months into Harry's stay in the Forbidden Forest when he had quite literally ran into Luna Lovegood during a night time potion ingredient gathering trip.

With a shocked, and pleasantly surprised look on his face Harry reacted, "Luna? What are you doing here?" He offered her a hand up, off of the Forest ground, where she had been after he had accidentally knocked her over.

"I like to walk through the Forest, Harry. They want to find you, you know." Luna was as she always was, rather dreamy and airy.

"I know Luna, I know. How's everyone doing? Ron? Hermione? You?"

"Ron blames you Harry. Hermione doesn't know what to think, and me? Oh Harry."

As soon as Harry had heard that Ron blamed him for Ginny's death a massive wave of guilt rolled over him. He couldn't bear to think that he had been the reason the Weasley family was no longer whole, the first family to show him love and kindness, and he had essentially taken the life of the youngest of the family, the only daughter.

Harry fell to his knees as he heard Luna mutter a soft "Oh Harry." Un-fallen tears stung at his eyes as he fiercely held them back. He would not allow himself to show such weakness in front of Luna, it was not acceptable.

Luna put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and tilted his face up to look at hers. Her pale silvery grey eyes shone in the moonlight, and Harry found himself transfixed.

"You mustn't blame yourself, Harry. That's how the Wrackspurts get in, you know that."

Harry smiled weakly and rose from his knees. Luna embraced him in a quick hug, but it was obviously time for her to leave. "I won't tell anyone you're here Harry. If you need me just send a Nargle, they know where to find me."

The clouds moved away from the moon for a moment, illuminating Luna as her eyes seemed to glaze over slightly, and she spoke in a voice that was not quite hers, "_Beware the Six-Limbed, O Child of Lightning and Son of Frost."_

And with that Luna departed from the small clearing, heading back in the direction of Hogwarts castle. She would usually say very strange things, and Harry would typically disregard them, but this seemed very important. He left, in the opposite direction as Luna, pondering what she could have meant.

Harry was pleasantly surprised that he had seen and talked to Luna, and while it hurt bitterly it was good to know about Ron and Hermione.

It was two months after his run in with Luna, it was about eight months into his stay in the Forbidden Forest, and Harry was currently running for his life, with Cygnus on his back.

Well, it was not quite running, more limping for his life. He could hear the arrows being fired by the Centaurs and Forest Elves thunking and thumping into the trees and dirt behind him.

"Masssster, where do we go, ssss?" Cygnus was fairly distressed by their situation. Harry had managed to anger the centaurs quite badly.

"Away." Was the only reply Harry had for Cygnus.

A couple of centaurs had found Harry's cave, and had seen his half hidden body underneath the Invisibility Cloak. After a quick scuffle one Centaur ended up with the Cloak in his hands, and had galloped out of the cave as fast as he could.

The other centaur was not so lucky, not so lucky at all. He was desperately trying to hold his intestines in place, and trying to force them back into his gut. Harry had hit the attacker with a violent _Eviscero_ when he had been woken by something trying to steal his Invisibility Cloak.

The centaur was on his way out of this life and into the next when Harry sprinted out of the cave, chasing the path he could see the other centaur had taken.

Harry had become rather adept at tracking and hunting down his prey during his eight months in the Forest, and with Cygnus helping him to scent out the centaur he had tracked the young centaur with his Invisibility Cloak back to their camp.

That was when things began to go particularly wrong. The young centaur had immediately began yelling and screaming that Harry was a murderer, and should be executed.

The growing crowd of centaurs had all agreed, many raising their bows and knocking arrows to them.

Harry had thought that the centaurs were a thoughtful bunch, but he was wrong, at least when it came to dolling out justice to wizards.

"Run, Masssster!" Cygnus had hissed urgently. Harry agreed whole heartedly, and ran for his life.

Both Harry and the centaurs had knowledge of the Forest, but Harry had more mobility and maneuverability in the denser packed areas of the Forest. Running through the densest thicket of trees that he could find Harry was desperate.

He had been running and chased by the centaurs for about a mile before he was hit. One of the centaurs had loosed an arrow that had flown straight into his hamstring muscles. Every step that Harry limped onwards was pure and blinding agony. He could feel deep in his muscle tissue the arrow tip grating and jarring excruciatingly.

And that brings us to where Harry is now, nearly blind with pain, and limping his way through part of the densest, thickest areas of the Forbidden Forest.

He had not yet realized this, but the centaurs had stopped following him and shooting at him a minute or so ago.

They had stopped following him because he was now in Acromantula Territory. The section of the Forest that Aragog and his kin ruled with venom dripping pincers.

In fact the Acromantula had thought the centaurs were invading their Territory, and had rose up to defend their homes. A bloody and fierce battle was being fought somewhere behind Harry, as he was quickly coming to realize from the sounds and yells he was hearing.

"I ssssmell blood, Masssster. I believe they are fighting each other, sss." Cygnus confirmed his suspicions, even as his head swam in pain and exhaustion.

"Massster, I can ssssenssseee ssssnake magic near here! The Chamber of Ssssecretsss!"

This was the best news that Harry had heard all day. He had slowed his pace down to a limping stumble now, but this was the motivation that he needed.

Cygnus had slithered off of his back, and Harry was following him. Cygnus was scenting out the snake magic that he had sensed, and hopefully he was not mistaken.

Coming to a small circle of rocks with a small snake engraved on one of them Harry sighed in relief and hissed out in Parseltongue, "Open."

Immediately a concealed tunnel grated open to allow Harry and Cygnus entry, and they entered the downward sloping tunnel. They could hear the entrance closing up behind them, and both continued to make their way slowly along the tunnel, in the dark.

They had found the Chamber of Secrets, and not a moment too soon. Harry still had the arrow lodged firmly in his leg, but it would be easier to treat and heal now that they were in the Chamber of Secrets.


	3. Chapter 3

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated. Leave a review for the love of hell.

Harry and Cygnus had quickly descended below the Forest floor, following the downward sloping tunnel that lead to one of the offshoot tunnels of the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry could still hear the distant and dim noises of the Acromantulas and Centaurs battling not very far above or away from him. The wards around the tunnel, that he could vaguely feel at the edge of his consciousness, were also serving to dim the outside noise and stimulation.

But Harry was having trouble focusing on feeling the wards right now, in fact he was having trouble focusing on anything at all. All he could think about or feel was the arrow tip still firmly lodged into his leg.

This was not the first injury he had sustained since beginning his time in the forest, there had been a slight cave in while he had slept, once, that had dislocated his shoulder, and cut a gash deep into his arm. He still had the scar from his hastily learned and slightly botched healing charm that had dealt with the gash.

"Massster, you mussssst ressst and heal yoursssself." Cygnus offered his opinion to Harry, and it was good advice, Harry could barely walk any longer.

"I know, Cygnussss. I am."

Leaning up against the wall of the tunnel Harry began to tend to his wound.

The arrow was thankfully not poisoned, but it was firmly lodged in the muscle of his leg.

"_Dirumpo_." The shaft of the arrow cleanly broke right near where it was buried inside Harry's leg. A few inches of the shaft were still visible, attached to the tip that was still inside Harry's leg. The shorter length of the shaft would allow Harry better maneuverability with his wand for when he tried to heal the wound.

Hovering the tip of his wand a few inches away from the arrow Harry drew in a sharp breath and cast an _Accio_ charm on the arrow tip. Feeling sharp and burning pain as the arrow tip was quickly dragged out of it's place and clattered to the floor Harry began the wand motions for his next charm.

"_Sano." _It was a simple healing charm that would slowly knit his skin and wound back together over the course of the next four or five minutes. Cygnus poked his head near the wound, snaking his forked tongue out, scenting the healing magic that Harry had cast, in order to make sure that Harry had cast the charm correctly.

"It all ssseemsss correct, Massster. Well done, I sssay."

Eyes still closed tight in pain as the basic healing charm crudely healed his wound Harry replied with just a nod. The end result of the healing charm would be a sore leg for the next few days, and a scar that would probably ache for the next few weeks as well. But that was well worth the result, in Harry's opinion.

Leaning back against the tunnel wall and resting his leg as it repaired itself the two gave the charm a few minutes to finish working before continuing. They could afford to wait, no one else except a Parselmouth could enter the Chamber of Secrets, and it was very unlikely that the only other Parselmouth that Harry knew of was inside Hogwarts.

After his wound had closed itself up the two continued down the tunnel. It was dark and somewhat grimy, with the occasional bit of old and dried snakeskin scattered around the tunnel floor.

Harry and Cygnus moved their way through the winding and long tunnel system before coming to some of the more familiar looking chambers and tunnels. They looked similar to the rather ornate and more decorated sections of the Chamber of Secrets that Harry had seen and been in during his second year at Hogwarts.

Based on the increasing decoration and ornateness of the tunnels Harry and Cygnus had concluded that they were nearing the main section of the Chamber, the area where the corpse of the Basilisk still remained, where Harry had battled the spirit of a teenaged Tom Riddle.

That had been years ago, but as Harry approached that very chamber he could tell nothing had changed.

Entering into the large stone chamber with the large statue of Salazar Slytherin Harry noticed that the large corpse of the Basilisk had not decayed at all. Such an old magical beast had huge amounts of magic inside it's body, and that magic was preserving it even in death. It was a miracle that Harry had survived that battle, and doubly so a miracle that Fawkes had helped him out.

Seeing the spot where Ginny had lain motionless in the shallow water those years before Harry felt another wave of guilt wash over himself. He had fought so hard and very nearly died from the Basilisk venom flowing through his veins, all to save his best mate's little sister. And yet he had led her into the Department of Ministries, where she had died in a horrible way. Harry still felt guilty about it, of course he did, he didn't feel guilty about Goyle Sr.'s death however, but he still felt guilty about Sirius and Cedric dying as well.

Harry had been seeing and dealing with death his entire life, he had been surrounded by death since he was just a few months old. And even though he did not know this he was forming strong connections to death, and that would make casting and performing death magic easier for Harry.

But right now Harry was tired, very tired. His leg was sore and he had just gone through a very exhausting ordeal. The fact that he had killed one of the centaurs had not quite registered with him yet. It would hit him soon enough.

Walking around the chamber, searching for any hidden rooms or compartments, Harry knew that some sort of hidden room had to exist. It was said that the Chamber of Secrets was Salazar Slytherins personal area, why would Slytherin himself pass up on the chance to include some sort of living chambers inside the hidden chamber he built to hide and house his Basilisk.

Walking along the walls of the Chamber, carefully sending out small tendrils of his magic that were scanning the area for any magic unlike the magic around it. Harry had learned this skill long ago, he had almost subconsciously learned to magically sense or scan his relatives, especially his Uncle, to be able to tell what sort of mood he was in. But he had not consciously scanned anything with his magic until he had read about it during his time in the Forest, and was now putting it into practice.

Stopping at the base of the statue of Salazar, Harry could feel a bit of slippery magic. This must be what Parselmagic feels like, Harry thought.

Hissing out in Parseltongue Harry gave activating the magic a shot, "Open." He heard grating, gear like noises moving behind the bit of wall where he had felt the magic. Slowly an ornate stone door appeared and took shape.

"Massster, have you found it yet?"

"Yesss, Cygnusss. But I do not know what isss on the other sssside. Be careful, friend."

"_Lumos_" Harry had his wand raised above his head, the _lumos _charm providing light for himself and Cygnus as they slowly opened the door and went into the hallway.

Going slowly down the hallway Harry sent out his magical tendrils, feeling ever so subtly for any life forms or magical signatures. It would not do for a person or even another Basilisk to be waiting in ambush. It could not hurt to be overly cautious. After all even though Harry did not think that Dumbledore knew where the Chamber of Secrets was it was possible that he did. He was Headmaster, and a very powerful wizard at that.

Harry sensed no one inside the hallway or any of the few chambers. That was good news. Wand still held high to provide light down the hallway Harry felt a small bit of magic embedded in the wall. Turning to investigate he saw a small crystal. Tapping his wand to the crystal it seemed to flare to life, with other crystals lining the top of the hallway lit up, dousing the entire hallway in a rather dim light.

"_Nox"_ Harry extinguished his wand, but kept it raised up, just in case. He could see four or five wooden doors leading off of the hallway that Harry and Cygnus were in.

"_Homenum Revelo"_ This was a simple spell that would alert Harry if any hominids were nearby, and evidently no hominids were.

Checking the doors and rooms behind them one by one Harry and Cygnus found what appeared to be Salazar Slytherin's personal study, a small but seemingly well stocked library, something called the 'Heir Room', a large room filled with food and supplies under very powerful stasis charms and enchantments, and a medium sized empty stone chamber.

The Heir Room seemed to be for the heir of Salazar, which made sense. The heir of Salazar was meant to unleash the beast inside the Chamber, when the time was right. Tom Riddle had done so, and had tried to again but Harry had managed to stop him by killing the beast and stabbing the diary.

So it seemed that Harry had found a good living area, and a place that he could stay for the foreseeable future. He had not really had a plan for his future when he was inside the Forest, but now that his situation was a little more stable he would have to plan for his future a bit more. He would be able to do that later though, right now he wanted to check out the supply room for any salves or potions that would help relieve the soreness in his leg.

Finding a tub with the basic symbol that was used to display healing magic or mediwizards Harry tapped his wand to the tub to deactivate the stasis charm. Taking a handful of the salve and rubbing it over the scar Harry immediately felt slightly better.

"What now, Cygnusss?"

"I'd sssay to go through the sssstudy, Massster."

"I agree."

Exiting the large supply room Harry went back into the room that appeared to be Salazar Slytherin's private study. A portrait on the back wall of a regal, aristocratic looking man with shoulder length black hair, a black goatee, and black, green, and silver robes was asleep. From what Harry had heard and read this was Salazar Slytherin himself. There were no recorded portraits made or found of any of the Founders, so this was obviously meant to be a secret.

Harry had a thought, and he would be taking a slight risk but he figured it was worth it, "Awaken.", Harry hissed in Parseltongue.

The eyes of the portrait snapped open, and immediately seemed to appraise Harry for all that he was worth.

"So, you've found my Chamber of Secrets, like the heir before you. He ignored my advice, will you do the same?" Salazar spoke.

Harry thought for a moment, Salazar was known for being a muggle hater, so it would be prudent for Harry to be cautious.

"I will be making my own path. The Ministry, and Dumbledore are after me. I believe the old heir is as well."

"My old heir mentioned Dumbledore, has he become Headmaster?"

"Yes, Lord Slytherin." Harry took a guess that it would possibly endear himself to Salazar, and that it was simply appropriate to use the man's title when speaking to him.

"What is your name, heir?" Salazar's eyes light up the slightest bit when he heard himself be addressed as 'Lord Slytherin.'

"Harry Potter."

"Tell me, Harry. Are the Potter's now still the same as they were in my time? They always would side with Godric." This was somewhat shocking to Harry, he knew his family was old and rather influential, but it appeared that they were at least a thousand years old, and that they had been somewhat well known a thousand years ago, at least.

"I am the last Potter, your heir killed my parents."

"Ah. Both an orphan and a criminal on the run, what do you hope to achieve here?"

"I don't quite know yet. I lived in the Forest for a while, but I need a better place to stay."

"You may stay here, Harry Potter. I shall train you, as much as I can. And I believe I have a plan for your future."

"Thank you, Lord Slytherin."

The portrait now seemed to fall asleep, apparently he was done speaking to Harry for now. But Harry was excited, he now had a place to stay and train, and even a portrait to help him as much as he could.

It had been a week since Harry and Cygnus had come to the Chamber of Secrets and Harry's leg had completely healed. He was no longer injured at all, which was good.

Salazar had not woken up again to teach Harry anything, but Harry was confident that he would soon enough. Harry had been staying inside the Heir Room, and eating food from the supply room.

Checking into the study it seemed that Salazar was awake again.

"I have made my decision. I will train you, but we will need time, more time than we have. I have a plan for what we will do."


	4. Chapter 4

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated. Leave a review for the love of hell.

It had been two days since the portrait of Salazar Slytherin had agreed to guide Harry in his training. Salazar had been away from his portrait frame during the two days and Harry had not seen him. Harry and Cygnus had been exploring the Chamber, and had been preparing themselves for whatever Slytherin had in store for them.

Harry was sitting cross-legged on the floor in one of the stone rooms he had discovered earlier. It was cold inside the bare room, but despite that a thin sheen of sweet was beginning to form over Harry's shirtless form. Harry had grown lean during his time in the Forest, losing most of the fat that was on his body, and making his muscles more defined and pronounced.

He was currently practicing one of the meditation techniques that he had read in one of his schoolbooks. This meditation was meant to summon pure, raw magic to one's body. This magic could then be redirected or utilized in various ways, but it was often just released by the person meditating. It was difficult to harness the pure magic for anything actually useful, unless the meditator was well versed in at least basic mind magics.

Harry had pulled in as much magic as he could control and it could be seen shimmering around his arms and hands. It manifested as a pale gold color that occasionally pulsed with more vibrant shades. It required a good amount of concentration and strength to control magic like this, especially for a prolonged period of time.

It was a good exercise in that with more practice in controlling the magic it would make it easier to use in the future. The raw magic that Harry had summoned could be used for multiple things, the most common was for the raw magic to simply be thrown or shot and used as a magical missile of sorts.

Launching a blast or bolt of pure magic could be a lot quicker than casting a spell, especially if the desired result was simply an explosion. Raw magic, unless handled correctly, is almost always explosive and therefore rather difficult to deal with.

Taking a deep breath in and slowly exhaling Harry released the magic built up in his hands as he exhaled. He had gathered as much magic to himself as he could, and held it for as long as he could. He would keep up with this exercise everyday until he could summon a bolt of raw magic and launch it instantaneously. He was on the run after all.

Cygnus slithered into the room that Harry was in, and hissed out, "Masssster, Lord Sssslytherin isss in hisss portrait, and wishesss to sssee you."

"One sssecond Cygnusss. I will be in shortly."

Drying the thin layer of sweat off of his body with a quick spell Harry rose and put on his shirt. Exiting the room he was in and going down the short hallway to Salazar's personal study Harry entered. Cygnus slithered off to finish exploring the Chamber.

"Greetings again, Harry."

"Lord Slytherin, Cygnus said you wished to see me."

"Yes, I did agree a few days ago to help train and prepare you as best as possible. I needed some time to completely formulate my plan, and to decide that I would indeed train you. I am not the most trusting person, but I can sense my own magic inside of you, somehow. Yet it is different than my magic that I could sense in my heir, when he was here."

Continuing with his little monologue Salazar was glancing about the room, "I said that we would need more time to suitably train you, and that is still true. Tell me, young Potter, what do you know of Bloodmagic?"

"Nothing, Lord Slytherin. It is illegal to learn and teach now."

"Illegal, hmm? Does that bother you, little Gryffindor?" Slytherin seemed to use the term "Gryffindor" derogatorily, but it didn't bother Harry.

"Will it help me to survive?"

"Undoubtedly."

"Then no, it does not bother me at all, Lord Slytherin."

This seemed to satisfy Slytherin, "Good. To gain the time needed to properly train you at all you will need to perform a rather simple Bloodmagic ritual."

Salazar continued to explain bloodmagic to Harry, "Bloodmagic is rather simple, but devastating if used incorrectly. It is in it's most basic form simply magic that is embedded in one's body that improves or gives additional abilities or attributes to a person. Bloodmagic also exists in other forms, some not on the body of the 'caster', but you will only be learning the basic's for the next few months. bloodmagic is performed by drawing particular runes into the ground and then carving other runes into one's flesh with special knives, this leaves a bit of magic inside the cuts which can then be activated later or kept active. It can be infinitely useful for an infinite amount of purposes, and is a very useful tool to have in one's arsenal."

This was a lot of information for Harry to take in. It sounded very useful indeed, but also like it had a lot that could go wrong. Which was also true. But it sounded intriguing to Harry, and also like it would be beneficial to learn bloodmagic, even if it was just the basics. But Harry intended to take this bloodmagic stuff as far as he could, permitting it was reasonably safe enough to do so. It would not do to let an advantage like this slip by if he could help it.

Salazar spoke again, "In the desk you will find what should be a suitable knife to use, and also notes on the ritual you will need to perform. The ritual you will be performing will be one of the simplest rituals in bloodmagic, a Ritual of Activation. It simply serves as the 'on' switch for the vast bloodmagic runic array that I set up a thousand years ago."

Moving over to the desk Harry removed what Lord Slytherin had told him to remove. Sitting in the chair behind the desk Harry began to read about the Ritual of Activation that he would need to perform.

Looking up from reading the notebook Harry asked, "Lord Slytherin, what exactly will this Ritual of Activation activate?"

"It will activate what is perhaps one of my greatest achievements in magic. It will turn on the Time Distortion Field that is set up and waiting dormant around the entire Chamber of Secrets. It will distort the passage of time inside the Chamber of Secrets for about a year, essentially removing it from the standard time stream."

Harry exhaled a deep breath, this was Time Magic, and Time Magic on a scale that Harry had never really seen before. Time Turners were one thing, the entire Chamber removed from time for a year was an entirely different animal altogether.

"The Ritual of Activation will simply activate the runic array that I set up, and it will send us out of time for exactly a year. I will use this time to guide and direct your training as best I can."

"Yes sir, Lord Slytherin."

Going back to reading the notebook it seemed that the Ritual of Activation was really as easy as Lord Slytherin said it would be, which was good. When bloodmagic went wrong it was always explosive or fatal, which made learning bloodmagic somewhat hard, it was difficult for beginners to find the correct pace at which they should progress.

The Ritual would only require a few shallow cuts on his palm and for the blood to then be smeared in a rather precise rune pattern, forming the Rune of Activation. Letting that set and then smearing his blood across it again, this time charged with even more of his magic than was present in his blood already, would finish the Ritual of Activation. And Harry was eager to begin.

"Tell me, young Potter, do you think you can perform this simple Ritual? We will need to begin as soon as possible."

"Yes, Lord Slytherin. I can do it now, where do I need to draw the rune?"

"In the main chamber, near the base of the statue of myself. If you focus on what the bloodmagic feels like you will be able to see the thin golden strands of bloodmagic running throughout the stones."

Harry nodded and thought for a moment, "But how am I supposed to focus on what the bloodmagic feels like if I've never felt it before?"

"But you have felt it before, Potter, I can sense it coming off of you right now. It is very subtle yes, but it is there nonetheless. I can feel it and you can too, if you look for it in the correct way."

This was confusing for Harry, as it should be, but everything that Lord Slytherin had said was true. Harry had massive amounts of bloodmagic inside himself, thanks to what Dumbledore had done to him as a baby, but Harry did not know about this, and would not know about it for a long time.

"That's right! The Bloodwards! Dumbledore said he set up special wards that would protect me as long as I lived with my blood relatives. I don't live with them anymore though."

Pausing to think for a few more moments Harry continued his thought, "But I was living with them for years and years. I bet it would take some time for such a powerful bloodmagic connection to fade, even if it was completely broken."

"Correct. Now you just need to find this old connection and familiarize yourself with the feel of bloodmagic. To do this you will need to meditate some."

Moving from sitting in the chair to sitting on the ground, once more cross legged, as he had been before, Harry began to focus on himself, and what his magic was telling him.

He turned his senses inward and tried to reflect on what he was being told.

Harry could vaguely sense and feel some bit of older, fading magic that he could not quite identify. It did not have the rather slimy and slippery feel that Parseltongue had. It was slippery in it's own way, hard to grasp but also it felt very powerful. Harry could sense the slightest bit of intent that this magic was cast with, which was to tie one thing to another with honorable intentions. Harry assumed, rightfully though he could not know for certain, that this was what was left of the bloodmagic connection between himself and the wards that were once around his relatives house.

Getting a grip on this small tendril of magic that had not yet completely faded away Harry observed it closely. It was somewhat hard to grasp, but also rich and powerful. It was wholly unique in a somewhat indescribable fashion.

Familiarizing himself with the magic and the feel of it for a few moments Harry memorized what it felt like. He would need to draw the same magic out of his own blood if he wanted the Ritual of Activation to succeed, and indeed he would have to become familiar with it if he wanted to make any progress in the field of bloodmagic.

"Lord Slytherin, I've got it, I know what it feels like now."

"Are you certain that you can reproduce it? Any failure will send the entire Chamber collapsing down on our heads."

"I'm positive."

"Good. Take the knife you found in the drawer and the notebook and go perform the Ritual. I will be waiting in here when you are finished."

Recognizing the dismissal and immediate order Harry did as he was told. He would need to be precise about this Ritual, and he had never really tried any sort of Ritual before, bloodmagic or not.

Moving into the main Chamber where he had dueled Tom Riddle those years ago Harry went to the base of the statue, as Lord Slytherin had said.

Focusing once more on the feeling of bloodmagic that Harry had familiarized himself with earlier Harry concentrated on it hard. After a few moments of diligent concentration Harry could see the faint outlines and spider webs of gold lines that signified bloodmagic had been cast there.

There was a blank spot in the middle of the spider web of faintly glowing gold lines, which was where Harry would be drawing the Rune of Activation.

Studying the notebook for a final second Harry sighed and set it down. Moving the ritual knife to his left hand Harry took in a deep breath.

Closing his eyes and exhaling slightly as he made the first cut into his right hand Harry began to cut the simple pattern of six intersecting lines that were necessary for this Ritual of Activation. The number could vary depending on how the runic array was set up, and this Ritual required six cuts.

Finishing the cuts Harry brought his bleeding palm up to the blank stone, he could still see the glowing gold lines all around the blank area. Focusing on the feeling of bloodmagic that he had identified just moments earlier in the study with Salazar Harry began to channel it into the blood in his palm. He gathered it to himself exactly as he had gathered the raw magic to himself during his meditation, and from there channeled it into his blood.

Drawing the Rune of Activation into the blank spot took just a minute or two, and Harry then let it set for a couple more minutes as he focused even more bloodmagic into his palm. A faint reddish golden glow could be seen emanating from his palm as he gathered more energy.

Bloodmagic manifested itself with a golden glow after it had been cast and was set, but before it was cast or firmly set it also had a reddish glow in the visible manifestation.

As the bloodmagic set in place and the reddish glow on the stone turned completely golden Harry knew it was time for the next step in the Ritual.

Taking the bloodmagic gathered into his palm Harry once more pressed it against stone that was now criss crossed with faintly glowing golden lines. Pushing the bloodmagic into the Rune of Activation Harry completed the Ritual.

With a flash of blinding light the Ritual was complete, which soon became obvious.

Harry could see tendrils and bolts of magic bouncing back and forth along the perimeter walls of the Chamber of Secrets. Even though he could not see it this was happening on each and every wall inside the Chamber, as the Time Distortion Field activated.

A voice, Salazar's voice, filled the air from one of the light crystals embedded in the ceiling. "Time Distortion Field Activated. The Chamber will return to the Timestream in one year."

Returning back to the private study as Lord Slytherin had asked Harry entered the room.

"I see the Ritual of Activation was successful. Good. Now that you know what the bloodmagic feels like, and we have more time we can start planning your first piece of bloodmagic."

"Each piece, as they are called, does something special. Most of the basic pieces are for improving oneself either physically or magically. Spells, enchantments, and wards can be cast using bloodmagic but those are much more complicated and dangerous."

And so Harry sat at the desk and began taking down notes into a blank journal, he was writing everything that he and Lord Slytherin were agreeing on and discussing about Harry's first piece of bloodmagic. It would be a relatively simple and easy to do piece that would improve Harry's physical strength.


	5. Chapter 5

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated. Leave a review for the love of hell.

Once again Harry was sitting cross legged in the stone chamber. As it turned out he was inside the bloodmagic chamber that was built into the Chamber of Secrets. It was heavily warded, and Harry could now see the faint bloodmagic lines woven into the stone all along the chamber walls.

It had been a day and a half since Harry had completed the Ritual of Activation, and he was now meditating before performing his first piece of bloodmagic.

It was going to be a very simple piece, a few cuts and runes that would be carved lightly into his skin, and Harry would have to push the bloodmagic that he was familiar with into the cuts as he made them. The patterns and runes that he cut would determine what the piece would do, and the bloodmagic that he pushed into and imbued inside the cuts and slices would power the piece. It would take a small bit of magic to always power the bloodmagic piece, but Harry would get used to constantly powering it after a few days. And after he was used to it his magic would be slightly stronger than it was before.

Salazar and Harry had both agreed on what his first piece should be, it would be a simple piece that would help improve his physical strength, making Harry stronger than before. He would later add on more pieces to this 'set' of bloodmagic, as it was called.

Multiple pieces of bloodmagic that all built on each other to achieve the same purpose to a greater sum were called a 'set'.

Looking at his notebook that he had taken down notes in Harry took one last look at the diagram of the human body that was on one of the pages. He had carefully traced and planned out exactly how each line and rune would be sized and where it would be located on his body.

The trick to bloodmagic was that during the ritual the knife could not leave his skin. This was because as the 'caster' performed the bloodmagic and was embedding bloodmagic into the fresh cuts and runes it was important that the magic be in one consistent line, and not broken up into pieces. If it was broken up into pieces it was highly unstable, and would almost instantaneously fail catastrophically.

It was imperative that the knife did not break contact with his skin as he performed the ritual. It would be difficult at first, it was unnatural and unnerving to cut oneself in such a cold and calculated manner.

The first bloodmagic ritual that a person performed was one of the most dangerous, with the exception of a few higher level and higher expertise rituals that combined other schools of magic such as Necromancy. These rituals were highly dangerous, and required the 'caster' to be well versed in both bloodmagic and necromancy. Both of which were highly illegal to learn, teach, or practice in any way.

But the legality, or lack thereof, did not bother Harry, at least not for bloodmagic. Bloodmagic, if he was good at it, would be incredibly beneficial for him to learn. It would give him a physical edge over someone without bloodmagic, and it would also give him a better connection to his magic, make him stronger magically, and also it would give him unique attributes and abilities if he went to a high enough level with bloodmagic.

Tossing aside his notebook, he was confident that he had a firm grasp on exactly what he needed to do for this ritual, Harry picked up the ritual knife that Salazar had given to him.

Taking one last deep breath before making the very first cut into his palm Harry exhaled. He cut a reasonably deep gash into his left palm, and then smeared it in a circle all around where he was sitting, pushing the reddish gold magic into his blood, and as it settled slightly it became more of a gold color, still glowing faintly.

This circle would hopefully contain any sort of failure of the ritual, should anything go wrong. In the higher level rituals a complex circle of runes that would help with the channeling of magic during the ritual.

Finishing the circle of blood Harry pressed the tip of the knife into the upper part of his left forearm, this was where the ritual would begin, and it would circle back around at the end and finish on the same cut.

Dragging the knife up his left arm and bringing the knife up across his chest Harry was relieved. It was much easier than he thought it might have been, he had been slightly worried beforehand, but now he was confident. Keeping the knife at a consistent depth and progressing at a somewhat speedy pace Harry switched from his right hand to his left hand holding the knife, at the middle of his chest.

Harry was going at a very quick pace, but he did not now that that was not normal. Usually it bothered people the first time, apparently this was not so for Harry. Harry could not tell it, but he appeared to be some sort of a natural at bloodmagic, based on his performance during this first ritual.

Sweeping the knife across his chest and down his right arm Harry followed the diagram as he had memorized it. The way the lines were laid out would be optimal for strength increase, according to Lord Slytherin.

As he finished on his right arm Harry moved down to about his waist, this ritual would require no cutting below his waist or on his legs. Circling the blade around his waist in a perfect circle Harry moved the knife up his left flank, and up to his left shoulder. Harry had switched the knife back to his right hand again, very carefully. Dragging the knife once more down his left arm Harry circled the line down to the lower side of his forearm, and circled it around to the other side, lower down on his arm than where he had started. Bringing the knife back to where he had started Harry finished the ritual.

He had been very careful to push a constant amount of bloodmagic through the knife and into the long cut as he had made it, which would ensure the best results.

Remaking the first cut he had made in his palm Harry swept his hand across the crude, dried circle of blood he had made in the beginning of the ritual.

With a flash of pale golden light the ritual was complete, and Harry slumped down to his knees, he had dried blood all over his body and the entirety of the cut he had made was sore and painful.

Stumbling, ever so slightly, out of the bloodmagic chamber and into the washroom to shower and wash himself off Harry was relieved. The entire ritual had taken less than ten minutes total, which was incredibly speedy for a bloodmagic ritual. Harry would start to see results in the next two or three days as the bloodmagic settled, and would become stronger than he was now, in addition to his magic adapting to always feeding the bloodmagic piece, which would make his magic stronger.

Feeling sufficiently washed and refreshed Harry stepped out of the washroom, wearing a pair of loose fitting black slacks. One of the first things that Lord Slytherin had requested, demanded really, that Harry start acting like the pureblood that he was. This did not really bother Harry, Lord Slytherin was going to be guiding his training for the next year at least, and it would not be that hard to start dressing a bit nicer. The Chamber had its own wardrobe of formal clothing and robes.

Walking into the private study, where the portrait of Lord Slytherin was, Harry focused for a moment. Focusing on projecting more magic into his bloodmagic piece Harry made the faint gold lines turn much brighter, making it obvious that the ritual had been a success.

"Ah, young Potter, I see that the first piece went well. Very well it seems. Fast, too."

"Yes, Lord Slytherin, the ritual went flawlessly, I barely feel tired at all."

"You'll feel it in the next few days. Come closer, let me examine the lines."

Stepping closer to the portrait Harry turned and rotated in a circle to allow Lord Slytherin to see all of the golden line that snaked and wrapped it's way around Harry's body.

"It looks exactly like the diagram we came up with. Let it settle over the next two days, do not interfere or otherwise tamper with it at all. It is important that the first piece sets firmly and undisturbed."

Harry nodded in understanding, he had no wish to interfere or disturb his bloodmagic piece. It was important that the first one heal and his body become used to having the bloodmagic constantly there, if his body rejected it for any reason the bloodmagic could still self destruct. After the first piece set then the danger of that happening slimmed down to zero.

"Over the next few days you will rest. On the bookshelf over there you will find an old tome, simply titled _Bloodmagic_. It is a very old book, and you will take care of it. I am not completely powerless from this portrait frame, and if you damage that book you will face the consequences."

The cold severity with which Lord Slytherin said this made Harry not doubt it at all. If anyone was cunning or crafty enough to be dangerous and powerful even a thousand years after their death it was definitely Lord Slytherin.

Walking to the bookshelf and finding the old tome Harry carefully brought it down off of the shelf. Moving over to the desk in the study and setting down the book Harry quickly retrieved his ink, quill, and notebook from his room.

Opening the book and beginning to read Harry also took notes on all of the most useful information, it would possibly prove useful in the future, and it was nice to have all of the various tidbits of useful information compiled in one spot.

Cygnus slithered into the study, he had been exploring the Chamber for any more hidden secrets or bits of magic, and had so far found nothing.

"Massster, how wasss the ritual? I can ssssmell the bloodmagic from here." Cygnus hissed out to Harry.

"It wasss a sssuccesss, Cygnusss. It went perfectly. How isss the sssearch of the Chamber going?"

"I have not found anything yet, Massster. But I shall keep looking."

Harry nodded and scratched his quill across the parchment page in his notebook. The _Bloodmagic_ book contained lots of useful information, and many helpful hints about formulating rituals and planning out the runes and cuts.

A few hours passed by with Harry diligently reading and taking down notes, before Lord Slytherin broke the near silence.

"Potter. What do you know of brewing Potions?"

"The basics, Lord Slytherin. But that is essentially all that I know about Potion brewing."

"That is fine, you are done reading for the night. Go to the supply closet and bring one of the cauldrons. Also grab the chest labelled _Ingredients #7_. I will be teaching you to brew some basic potions, disguise and concealment potions."

Harry nodded and went to the supply closet to grab what he was asked to get.

Returning back to the study with the cauldron and chest Harry was excited about learning more about Potion brewing. Snape had never been the best teacher, especially towards Harry, but it appeared that now Lord Slytherin himself would be teaching Harry about Potions.

"Set them over there, Potter. You must be able to disguise yourself properly if you want to go out at all, especially if the Ministry and other factions are hunting you. I will teach you some of these disguise methods, but you will also need to come up with a new name and persona for yourself."


End file.
